2005 UD Reflections Kay Jay Harris /15 Auto
Probably not the greatest of click bait to feature an obscure WVU player, but bare with me just for a minute....
Kay Jay Harris went undrafted after his senior season at WVU, but still received a handful of releases from some of the bigger rookie oriented sets. His cards have always been cheap. So much so that you have to look for auctions with free shipping or else you will pay more to get the card to your house then the actual sell price.
Over the years I've actively pursued dozens of players like Kay Jay Harris. It was fun because I watched them all play in person and the cost was minimal. It is always fun to have a personal tie to the cardboard you purchase.
As my WVU collection grew I decided that I would chase some more obscure parallels to give myself a challenge. I definitely underestimated how hard and costly this could be. Most of my focus goes to bigger WVU names like Pat White, Steve Slaton and Joe Alexander. They surprisingly still have a strong market when you get into the low numbered cards. Many cards still go into the $20 to $30 range. Not break the bank type of numbers, but if I'm going to spend that kind of money I would rather it be on my Pirates collection. Even the Kay Jay Harris above set me back $8.
I'm beginning to think I might have some luck scouring Sportlots and Just Commons. My hope is that the seller would just assume that this is just some scrub card that no one would really want. In theory I kind of thought this would be true on eBay auctions, but obviously there is someone just like me wanting to add obscure WVU players to their collection.
I guess long story short is don't underestimate college collectors.
Thanks for reading!
I think that many collectors, as well as the card companies, either underestimate or are completely ignorant of college fanbases' collecting tendencies.
ReplyDeleteA prime example of WVU is the first Pat McAfee card that came out. It is #/99. I haven't looked in awhile but last time that I did, going rate was close to $100.
People probably bitch about pulling that card ("IT'S A PUNTER!") from a pack until they see what they can get out of it.
Secondary sales make products stronger over time. People complain they can't get their money back. Well, card companies need to do some research and better select players, especially among rookies. Try to get as many rookies from schools that are highly collected. But hey, what the heck do I know?
-kin
I follow WVU cards pretty closely. If a rarer Pat White, Slaton and even Joe Alexander hit eBay they still have good earning power. I was salivating a few weeks back when a seller was liquidating several low numbered Alexander cards. I thought for sure I would get a deal, but the prices went way up. I just had to focus on a select few rather than get most of the lot.
DeleteI wish I was more active collecting Syracuse guys. I always try to score an auto or Relic of a guy I really liked.
ReplyDeleteI go in cycles with my WVU collection. When I'm on a dry spell with the Pirates I usually just take some time and fill in the holes in that collection. I like to at least get one cool card of everyone. My only large collections are Pat White, Steve Slaton, Devin Ebanks and Joe Alexander.
DeleteThere's two sides to this coin. On one side... it kinda sucks that guys who never really made it big in the NFL command a decent dime. But on the other side... it means people are still collecting, which is a damn good thing to hear.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on grabbing this pretty rare card for your collection for under $10.
For sure....if you collect college teams you really don't care about their careers as a pro to the extent that it would make you like a player more or less. It is all about their college career.
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